An F&B establishment owner, Chung Deming, has penned a lengthy Facebook post/ open letter to DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam about the manpower challenges facing small food establishments.

Chung owns Durian Creme Brulee, which supplies, unsurprisingly, durian crème brûlée to other F&B establishments. Chung shared an encounter he had with DPM Tharman who asked him about his manpower situation.

Chung said he gave a frank response that the situation was bleak because while he wanted to hire Singaporeans, very few would reply to his job advertisements and "even when they do, only 1/5 turns up for the interview."

When DPM Tharman asked if he hired part-timers or China nationals, Chung said it was impossible to rely on the former to "cook food to a high standard and quality", while he did not meet the necessary quota for the latter.

Chung lamented that Singapore was "losing our local food culture to central kitchens and chain restaurants" and that "only a certain limit that one can place on automation".

This is so as there is a "cost and scale problem which will not help overcome the lack of manpower".

The main gripe he had was that there should not be a blanket standard for foreign manpower restrictions and levies especially for the F&B industry where locals already shun it.

And on the point of attracting Singaporeans to join the F&B industry through higher wages, Chung said this:

Raising the minimum wage etccc, will not cause more Singaporeans to choose FnB as a career. If wages are artificially inflated, would it be still sustainable to provide economic food to the masses?

Here's his full post.

Interestingly, one netizen raised a point whether a S$2,000 starting pay would attract more Singaporeans for a position of a new cook. Chung said "it's reasonable to say 1.6-1.8k starting pay and if the person proves him/herself, Salary can always be adjusted when proficiency is shown".

The full discussion between the netizen and Chung, which is worth a read, is here:

Top image from Durian Creme Brulee

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